From the Ashes
by Quinnec
Summary: In which a sneak attack burns Konoha to the ground, the Leaf ninja are scattered, and a teenage Kakashi winds up on the run with three young charges. AU.
1. Ash and Dust

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto and make no profit from this work of fiction. This disclaimer applies to this and every subsequent chapter of "From the Ashes."

* * *

**Chapter 01: Ash and Dust**

* * *

**5 September, Year 6 of the Sandaime's Second Reign**

Fire. Stinging ash, clashing steel, and below it all, the acrid stench of smoke.

"Hokage-sama! We need to move!" Kakashi twisted sideways, thrusting chakra into the soles of his feet to maintain his balance. Terracotta tiles shattered beneath him as he lunged forward, deflecting a kunai before it could pierce a chuunin's back. Kakashi's ears caught the tell-tale hiss of a primed exploding tag, and he was forced to bodyswap with a branch to avoid the fiery explosion. Flames bloomed in the light of the setting sun, echoing the colors streaked across the sky.

"Yes, we do." The old man ducked and lashed out with his bo staff, the black tails of his hitai-ate trailing an arc behind him. "How is the evacuation progressing?"

ANBU Tiger flickered onto the rooftop, dodging an earth jutsu and knifing a Rock-nin's throat before vanishing back into the streets. The Iwa-nin's partner launched a series of projectiles at their group, forcing them to scatter. Kakashi snatched a poorly-aimed senbon from the air and traced movement though the nearby tree canopy. Sighting his target, he flicked it back in the direction from which it came. He was rewarded by a gasp of pain and seconds later, a meaty thump.

"We've evacuated as many civilians as possible from the East Gate District." Tiger had flickered back onto their rooftop and was giving her report in clipped tones while scanning the streets below. Taking advantage in the lull in the battle, Kakashi reached up to readjust his Hound mask.

"Fighting has moved west to the Bunkyo District and is approaching the hospital. The Uchiha have set up a defensive perimeter on its south end—we're funneling civilians and patients that way, toward Police HQ. Enemy combatants are predicted to move south from the East Gate into Shino District."

Kakashi started, and the Hokage's eyes—deadly sharp despite their halo of wrinkles—snapped to him. Coming to a quick decision, Sarutobi nodded to Kakashi. "Hound, find Naruto. Protect him until the battle is decided."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Kakashi murmured, drawing a kunai. He launched immediately into a sprint over the rooftops, coiling his chakra tightly to avoid detection. The Konoha Orphanage was located in Shino, in a grove at the southeast border of the village. If the fighting had moved that far—

Tension sang in his muscles, and the world around him blurred.

* * *

Shino District was ablaze when Kakashi arrived.

Fires raced through the streets, greedily licking up electric poles and dwellings, catching trees alight, collapsing roofs, and clogging the air with putrid smoke. A window exploded with heat as Kakashi passed, glass shards bursting out to slice into his bare deltoid. A trickle of blood ran down, tracing the spiral of his ANBU tattoo.

Reorienting himself southward toward the orphanage, he resumed his breakneck pace.

It was only once he reached the old wooden building that his gut clenched. Flames had nearly devoured the structure, howling up in a red-orange pillar against the twilight sky. Glass littered the blackened grass circling the orphanage, crunching under Kakashi's sandals, and heat whipped his face as he approached. Scanning the building, he circled toward the back where the flames had not yet destroyed the structure's integrity. Kakashi checked garden door briefly with his palm, then thrust it open and ducked to the side. The blaze flared in the new wave of oxygen, roaring like a tiger chasing wounded prey.

Taking a deep breath of relatively fresh air, Kakashi steeled his nerve and dove through the wreath of flames. He stumbled his way along the hallway, tracing a palm along the wall to guide him through the thick, acidic smoke. He'd just reached the administrative section of the building when his ears picked up a sound beneath the roar of the fire.

"Hey!" _Thump, thump. "_Hey, what's going on? Let me out! Lemme _out_!" _Thump, thump, thump._

Kakashi's mind stuttered to a halt.

The orphanage staff had locked a child in a burning building.

The orphanage staff had locked a _child_ in a _burning building._

A red haze overtook his vision that had nothing to do with his Sharingan.

_Someone is going to die for this. Slowly_.

"Please! I'll be good, I promise! _Please lemme out!"_

Kakashi threw himself around another corner, allowing hearing and chakra-sense to guide him through the maze of the burning orphanage. Hurtling a fallen beam, he ran the length of a flame-wreathed hallway, taking a sharp left into the head matron's office. A haze of smoke filled the room. Kakashi doubled over coughing, his cloth mask not enough to filter clean air from the thick ash. He dropped to his stomach, crawling through the slightly clearer air toward the child's screams.

"P-please, lemme out. I'm s-orry—"

Kakashi reached the door on the other side of the room, examining it rapidly.

"Stand back," he barked, and was met by a teary gasp and a scramble of feet from the other side. He counted to three under his breath, then regained his feet, set his stance, and hurled a chakra-fuel kick at the door. It slammed back into the wall, hinges squealing under the strain.

Kakashi peered into the gloom, hyperaware of the flames licking their way into the office.

"Naruto?" he coughed. "Come here, Naruto!"

Slowly, a small figure crept out of the smoke squinting up at him through reddened eyes. Without wasting a second, Kakashi darted forward and snatched him up, turning just as the room exploded into flames.

* * *

_Pain._

Throbbing, sickening pain, ricocheting through his head.

Kakashi groaned as he woke, throwing a hand up to cover his Hound mask's left eyehole. Fighting back the nausea threatening his stomach, he lurched upright and blinked his good eye open.

The smoke outside lay thicker now, settling like a soft blanket over the orphanage's clearing and cast in an odd orange light. Blinking rapidly to clear his vision, Kakashi craned his head around, searching for the source of the strange illumination.

A hundred yards beyond the orphanage, the towering, centuries-old trees ringing the Village Hidden in the Leaves burned, tossing sparks hundreds of feet into the sky. Even as he watched, wood screamed, snapping with a clap like thunder, and a monstrous limb speared toward the ground. The earth shuddered when it hit.

"_Crown fire_," Kakashi breathed, heart dropping faster than a thrown kunai.

Every Konoha citizen—hell, even the _civilians_—knew the dangers of a crown fire. Konohagakure periodically set ground fires to burn the duff from beneath the soaring trees surrounding the village, to prevent unexpected natural fires. That was simply a part of being a ninja in the Land of Fire.

But a _crown fire_ this close, in the middle of the dry season, could destroy the entire village.

A moan from his left wrenched his eyes away from the horror before him. Naruto lay next to him, right arm twisted at an awkward angle and a spectacular bruise forming on his forehead.

_Damn_. An undignified scramble brought him next to the child, and a hasty inspection of his body revealed no dire injuries. Listening at his chest was worse. His heartbeat was steady, but his lungs wheezed with every breath he took.

_Someone is definitely going to die for this._

Carefully gathering the child to his chest, Kakashi pushed yet more chakra into his legs and stood. He grimaced as his quads twinged with fatigue—at this rate, he'd exhaust his chakra within the next hour. Shaking off the tiredness as best he could, Kakashi wove his way through the smoldering junipers ringing Konoha Orphanage.

When they broke the tree line, he caught a glimpse of Konoha proper.

"Gods," he whispered. The boy whimpered and tried to burrow deeper into the safety of his chest. Kakashi ran what was hopefully a soothing hand through the kid's ash-stained hair, never once taking his eyes off the sickening scene laid out before him. The entire south forest was alight, casting a sickly orange glow over the village. Tongues of flame leapt from canopy to rooftop, cracking terracotta tiles and setting the wooden dwellings alight. Battles were highlighted against the backdrop of flames, kunai flying and men being struck back, only to be consumed by the ravenous fire.

And there, to the west—

Where the Hokage Monument used to preside over the village, now lay a mountain of rubble.

* * *

Crouched in an alleyway, an unconscious Naruto tucked beneath one arm and a drawn kunai in the other hand, Kakashi cursed himself.

They were making their way painstakingly northward, up past the hospital, which had fallen to what seemed to be a joint invading force of Lightning- and Rock-nin. The fighting was thicker up here—it seemed the invaders had moved into Kin District, not Shino—and the streets were being barricaded. By whose army, Kakashi wasn't sure.

Fading deeper into the shadows of the alley as a clatter of footsteps flew past, Kakashi stretched his senses out for nearby chakra signatures. Once he determined the area was clear, he hefted Naruto's limp form higher. The boy's breathing had evened out on the trek northward, but Kakashi was still concerned for his lungs. Smoke inhalation could be ten times more deadly than burns.

Setting aside those worries for now to focus on the more immediate threat, he moved out of his sheltering alley and into the eerily silent streets.

A step forward, creep along the wall, wait for a gap in the flames, move—avoid the chakra signature, duck behind the fence, stick to the shadows—

_Freeze!_

Heart beating rapidly, he waited for the Lightning squad to move past. Muscle memory carried him through many of the movements, but winding his way through the backstreets of Konoha gave him something to focus on beside the half-dead child in his arms or the fate of his village. If the enemy had moved this far into Leaf territory, it didn't seem like the battle would have a favorable outcome.

And the fire—if the fire couldn't be contained, there might not be a village to fight for. Konoha built mainly with wood. If the crown fire moved north, into the village…

_Don't think. Just move._

Turning one last corner, he reached out again for chakra signatures. Finding none, he took a chance and leapt to the roof, speeding north.

* * *

_Shit! _

Kakashi leapt backward, clenching Naruto to his chest as a tree branch collapsed beneath him. Embers licked at his Hound mask and scorched a line along his right forearm. He retreated to an empty road, again watching the shifting flames. One of the enemy ninja had to be using a fire jutsu—there was no other way the forest fire could have spread to the northern end of the village so quickly. Only the eastern flank and part of the western were yet open—the east presumably left clear for the invaders' retreat, and the west was closing rapidly.

He avoided looking at the village.

A gap appeared in the flames, and Kakashi shot forward. He ducked as a tongue of flame shot out, twisted sideways—

The gap in the flames was closing, he would barely make it in time—

"Help! _Mama, Papa, help!"_

A child's voice, screaming for help.

Kakashi skidded to a stop, heels kicking up tracks of dust in the heat-cracked earth, watching helplessly as a curtain of flame swallowed his escape route. He spun a tight circle, clutching Naruto closely, arms spasming at the continued effort. Kakashi scanned the area in front of him in a practiced manner, but came up with nothing. With a scowl and a quick surge of chakra, he snapped the chakra string binding the Hound mask to his face. It clung for a moment longer before tumbling to the ground, the bone-white porcelain shattering without the connection to his chakra to reinforce it. Range of vision widened, he swept the area with his Sharingan. A child's signature would be small, easy to overlook in the orange light of the flames and the dark shadows of the smoke—

_There!_ Crouched in the lee of a building a block away, completely surrounded by hissing flame, two small figures with barely-developed chakra coils.

Kakashi shifted Naruto's weight minutely, eyeing the dance of the flames. His limbs trembled with adrenaline and fatigue. He would only get one shot at this, and he _had_ to get those kids out before—

Flames spun, and Kakashi moved.

Left foot down, lunge through the flames, right foot down in the flame-vaccuum, snatch up the dark-eyed boy sheltering the pale-haired girl behind him, shift his grip, grab the girl, shoot up before the gap closed-

Flames kissed the bottom of his sandal as he tumbled onto the rooftop.

_I made it, _he thought, not moving. He'd give himself five seconds. Five seconds to just lie there and breathe, and make sure he was still alive after that desperate stunt.

When his self-imposed time limit expired, Kakashi sighed and rolled over heavily onto his back, exposing the children lying beneath him to the relatively fresher air away from the fire. This building was stone, one of few, and would therefore hold them for a few minutes—long enough to inspect his charges.

Naruto lay unnervingly still, but a quick check ensured that his heartbeat was strong, if a little fast, and he was breathing easily. Even as he watched, a twist of red chakra coiled beneath the boy's skin, cocooning his broken arm. Kakashi scrutinized Naruto a moment more, ensuring the chakra wasn't harming him, before turning to the next child.

Visual inspection informed him the dark-eyed boy was streaked with ash and that minor burns speckled his face, hands, and forearms. One darker burn drew a line across his right cheek, and might scar if he wasn't careful. Kakashi gathered chakra into his palms and ran the same check he had on Naruto, determining the boy had inhaled a minimal amount of smoke, and would be safe for a while longer.

He moved on to the girl.

She wasn't breathing.

"Damnit!" he snarled, ripping down his soot-clogged mask. He took a moment to confirm a lack of heartbeat before throwing himself into chest compressions. Basic first-aid was part of the Academy program, but every ANBU partnered with a medic-nin for a week during training to learn a few odd tricks…

Carefully, never letting his rhythm falter, he threaded two strings of chakra from his fingertips down into her heart.

_Slowly, slowly. Too much will kill her…_

One thread connected to the upper right side of her heart, one to the lower left-

_And shift. _

Chakra morphed into lightning, drawing a charge across the girl's failing heart. Her back arced off the roof, muscles straining, spine ready to snap—and she fell limply to the ground.

Kakashi withdrew his hands and lowered his ear to her thin chest—

_Tha-thump. Tha-thump_.

—and breathed out a strained laugh. He moved his ear to her mouth, where air puffed reassuringly from her lungs.

Kakashi sighed in relief, then straightened and began the logistical nightmare of carrying three unconscious children across a warzone.

* * *

AN:

I never want to describe fire _ever again_. Although, I do find it morbidly ironic that Fire Country's Hidden Village burned to the ground.

I might continue this—I have a few ideas going forward, but no solid plot yet.

Anyway, feedback is awesome. This is unbeta'd, so let me know what you think. (Was everyone in character, was the pacing or flow odd, was it interesting even though there was barely any dialogue and way too much fire, etc.)

Peace,

Quinn

Edited 5/15/15: Punctuation, formatting, and general word choice errors.


	2. Waking Up

.

* * *

**Chapter 02: Waking Up**

* * *

**6 September**

Tree branches scraped together. The dark forest echoed with the creak of wood and the rustle of leaves. A shadow peeled away from the arching branches high in the canopy, moonlight dripping through its wild silver hair. After a minute of tense silence, the figure stepped into thin air and dropped.

Kakashi landed heavily in the underbrush, knees buckling on impact. Muscle memory nearly had him rolling forward before he caught himself, twisting his momentum sideways. He fell roughly on his left elbow, the jolt echoing through his stiff arms.

He lay on his side and tried to regulate his breathing, arms still locked across the string of tiny bodies pinned to his chest. His lungs ached for oxygen, and he could still taste ash with each ragged breath.

Stifling a pained grunt, Kakashi managed to surge to his feet. The ground pitched below him.

He needed shelter, somewhere safe to pass out for a few hours. His chakra stores were flickering on their last dregs. If he burned those away, he'd be down for the next week with chakra exhaustion. He was so close. He had to make it _now_.

_Almost there…_

Kakashi raised a foot, dragging it through the dirt. _One_. He shifted, and placed the other. A burn on his calf twinged. _Two._ His armor and sword weighed on his back. _Three_.

Ten aching, leaden steps, and Kakashi stumbled forward, tripping through the vines camouflaging the entrance to a limestone cavern. He crashed to his knees a second time, adding to his layers of bruises. The jounin had just enough presence of mind to unlock his straining arms and roll the three children to the side before he collapsed.

As his eyes slid shut, the last sight he had was of moonlight trailing across three young faces.

* * *

Sasuke blinked his eyes open, squinting against the bright sunlight streaking his face.

_I don't wanna get up..._

If Mother hadn't woken him up yet, he couldn't be late for school. Sasuke grumbled, trying to roll over and nestle back into his blankets. Only there weren't any blankets.

_What…?_

The boy squinched his eyes open again, peering down at his too-hard bed—his too-hard bed made of _dirt._

Sasuke sat up slowly, peering around in confusion. Rocky walls reared up on either side of him, and mossy dirt stretched to a vine-strung cave entrance. Light seeped through the gaps in the vines, painting lines across the cavern floor. A number of lumpy, washed-out gray boulders cast shadows from the entrance.

_Huh?_

"Aniki?" His voice came out in a strained whisper. When no answer came, his breath caught. "A-Aniki?"

Sasuke fought back the anxiety rising in his chest, trying to think like a shinobi. If he was lost, the first thing to do was not panic, and stay where he was. Determined, Sasuke turned around.

Lying in the dust behind him were a boy and a girl. The boy he didn't recognize, though it was hard to tell anything about him with his hair and face all streaked with ash. Sasuke made a face, wondering if he looked like that, too.

The girl on the other hand…

_Someone crying in an alley, grabbing onto another small hand, dragging her forward and away_—

Her, he remembered.

But how did they get here?

Gathering his courage, Sasuke jumped to his feet. He'd just explore some, and then he would know where he was. And then they could all get back to Konoha and he could find his brother, and his mother, and maybe Father hadn't noticed that he'd gotten lost.

He stepped forward, slipping stealthily toward the shrouded entrance.

A second step, and Sasuke's ankle caught on what he'd thought was a shadow. He tripped over the lumpy shape on the floor, tucking his body into a roll as Iruka-sensei had shown him. His left knee stung with the impact.

Sasuke clutched at his leg, eyes narrowed angrily at the patch of raw, red skin. He couldn't afford mistakes like that. _Itachi_ had never scraped his knee trying to roll...

Annoyed, the boy switched his glare to the stupid lump—

His eyes widened.

_Blood running down the streets, Auntie Uruchi lying still on the ground, a man in silver armor pulling a katana from her back…_

_No, no, no, nonononono—_

Sasuke stumbled back, heart pounding. He _screamed_...

...and a blood-red eye snapped open.

* * *

Kakashi crept through chipped stone tunnels deep in Iwa territory, leading his four-man pack of ANBU along the marked path. They crept as silent shadows from crevice to crevice, until—

_Flash-crack!_

Searing, magnesium-white light exploded before them, and the air tore with a thunderous boom.

Kakashi collapsed to one knee, balance swooping. Ringing echoed through his skull, a sure sign of inner-ear damage.

_A flashbang. _

The ANBU captain cracked open his Sharingan, feeling the eye tug hungrily at his chakra. Three black tomoe whirled behind the confines of his Hound mask, each rotation clearing another layer of fog from his vision.

In the muted light above him, a shadow wavered.

Kakashi relaxed his muscles, falling back. As his shoulders hit the pebbled dirt, he whipped his feet up, regulation boots twining between the enemy's ankles and dragging him off-balance. In one smooth motion, Kakashi flipped up and unsheathed his ninjato. Diving for the enemy jounin, he crushed the man to the ground, using his superior mass to his advantage. The shortsword caressed his enemy's tan throat.

The ringing in his ears distorted, the pitch almost a scream. The ANBU captain paused, long-honed instincts flaring. He stared down at the Stone-nin's muddy brown eyes, arm still tensed to pull the ninjato across—

_"Gonna kill him too, Kakashi?"_

Kakashi froze.

_Obito..._

The face below him morphed, irises darkening to night-black, features narrowing, skin lightening...

Dark Uchiha eyes strained wide with terror, the naked steel of Kakashi's blade kissed a pale throat. It was Obito beneath him, or Trainee Crow, or any of the hundreds of Uchiha in Konoha, staring up with those bottomless black eyes.

_Obito._

Kakashi blinked, and suddenly his knees were compressing a tiny ribcage, his ninjato puckering the throat of a child. The Uchiha boy beneath him shuddered, terror plain across his face even as he clawed for the pressure points on Kakashi's wrists.

Kakashi flung himself backward, dropping the ninjato. The boy jackknifed, spurring himself backwards with hands and heels until his back came up against the cavern wall. He stared with wide, glazed eyes.

Kakashi fled.

* * *

Sasuke hugged his legs, pressing his eyes into the flesh-covered bone of his knees. He focused on that pressure and the burn from his scrape, fighting to just_ breathe._ His lungs strained, forcing air in and out, but it somehow _wasn't enough_—

"Hey, are you okay?"

Sasuke whipped his head up, ash-flecked fringe dripping over his face. The other boy was awake, watching him with deep blue eyes under sooty bangs. He shifted awkwardly on bare feet.

Sasuke panted, breath catching painfully in his lungs and shoulders digging back into the rough cave wall. He shuddered.

"Hey! Hey!" The boy plopped down, leaning forward to peer at him. "Are you okay? You're not gonna die, right?"

Sasuke drew another shaky breath. "S-Shut up... idiot…"

"_What! You!... _Fine, jerk." The boy crossed his arms, scowling over one dirty shoulder.

Sasuke desperately ignored him, focusing on his lungs. They were a little better, but what was _happening? _

Shuffling against the dirt came from in front of him, and he looked up. The other boy was leaning forward, ashy hair nearly brushing Sasuke's face. His bright eyes were narrowed to thin lines, head tilted sideways.

"Are you crying?"

"No. Shut up." Sasuke swiped at his eyes, brushing moisture from his cheeks. He wasn't _crying. _

The other boy leaned back, looking skeptical. "Okay..."

Silence descended again, and Sasuke breathed for a whole three minutes before it was shattered with a blinding grin.

"So... so hey! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Konoha's number one prankster! I'm gonna be the best ninja ever! _Believe it!"_

_Oww…_ Sasuke winched, massaging his ear after the shrill force of that last word. The screech echoed off the cave walls.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he replied after a moment. He breathed carefully, feeling his lungs inflate fully.

Naruto perked up. "Uchiha? Like the police guys?"

"Yeah, _so?_" Sasuke snapped.

The boy flinched. "Okay, sorry. _Sheesh…_"

Sasuke turned away, blocking his view of Naruto with one dirty, blue shoulder. They sat in silence as sunlight trailed across the cave floor. Sasuke watched the vines at the cave mouth sway in the breeze and dust motes sparkle in the light.

"So," came the surprisingly quiet voice. "Why are we in a cave? I… I don't remember…"

Sasuke peaked back over his shoulder. Naruto was curled up, clutching at the stained white sleeves of his T-shirt. He looked… really sad.

"I… I don't know. There was a lot of fire, and then…" Sasuke shrugged, trying to seem calmer than he was.

"Yeah. I remember the fire." Naruto's face went dark, like Itachi and Father sometimes. It looked like the darkness of the cave had somehow eaten away at the blue of Naruto's eyes, swallowing them up and leaving only black in their wake. Sasuke shivered.

"How'd you get away?" he asked.

"Well… _AH! _The animal ninja!" Naruto's eyes brightened, and he quivered with excitement. Sasuke blinked at the sudden change.

"...Animal ninja?"

The blue-eyed boy nodded vigorously. "Yeah, yeah! Like the ones that hang around Hokage-jiji all the time. He pulled me out of the fire!"

Sasuke stared hard at the cave wall, mind racing. _An...ANBU? _

That was what it sounded like, anyway. ANBU had animal masks. An ANBU had saved Naruto...

_Flames rearing high all around them, eating away the air he needed to breath. The girl's shout ringing in his ears, above even the ferocious roar of the fire, before she collapsed behind him. Intense, deadly heat, too hot, too close, _Aniki, please…

_A glint of silver and a hand at the back of his shirt, seconds before the world went black._

It made sense, even if...

"I…" the Uchiha cut off the other boy's rant—something about paint and the Hokage's office? "I think he pulled me out, too. And the girl."

"_What? _A girl?" Naruto looked at him with round eyes, then gazed at the shadowed figure deeper in the cave. "Back there? Is she okay?"

"I dunno. She's not awake yet."

"Oh." Naruto drooped. "W-Well maybe we should go find the animal guy! He's a _ninja!_ He'll know what to do."

That actually wasn't a bad idea. _If_ the guy was an ANBU.

Sasuke thought a moment more, and then he made his decision. "Okay," said Sasuke, hopping to his feet. He ignored the rapid thump of his heart, steeling his features and nodding sharply to Naruto. "Let's go."

* * *

Blood. Blood everywhere, staining the ground, his armor, his _hand_…

Kakashi knelt on the bank of a river, barely conscious of the chill mud seeping through his uniform pants. He thrust his right hand below the water again and again, scrubbing it raw with his nails. His fingers stung with cold, but below that he could still feel the hot gush of arterial blood over his palm, the crush of bones under his nails, pulverized organs clinging to the cracks in his skin.

_Rin..._

A rustle of leaves broke his trance. He flipped to his feet, a drawn kunai in his left hand. He whipped around, arm cocked to throw.

A pair of big blue eyes stared at him from waist height.

"_Gah!_" the kid yelled, falling backward belatedly at the sight of the blade.

_Slow reaction time._

Kakashi shook his head, dislodging the though. He wasn't training ANBU agents, not anymore.

"Naruto!" Another boy rushed from the bushes. He faltered at the sight of the body on the ground, wide eyes flickering up to Kakashi.

_Uchiha_. Kakashi froze at the sight of those deep black eyes and the pale trails through the ash on the boy's cheeks. The Uchiha's face shut down, eyes narrowing to slits as his tiny body took a basic taijutsu stance above Naruto's fallen form.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelped, scrambling to his feet in the mud. He eyed the Uchiha's rigid form and shifted his limbs in sloppy imitation.

_What?_ Kakashi blinked blankly at the two tiny children facing him, mind coming sluggishly to life. His freezing fingers trembled against the weight of his kunai, fire at their tips as the blood started to flow.

The kunai.

_Dammit._

He forced his stiff fingers to loosen, letting the kunai fall with a splash into the shallow water near the bank. He brought his hands up in front of his chest, palms facing outward in the universal sign of "look, no weapons!"

The children stared at him, obviously not recognizing the gesture.

_Now what?_

"Hi," he ventured.

Naruto relaxed minutely, a tentative smile coming to his lips. It was a good thing Kakashi wasn't a real enemy, or the kid would be dead by now.

The Uchiha boy remained frozen.

Kakashi took a half-step forward, watching for a reaction. The kid took a step back, nearly unbalancing on a loose rock before he caught himself. He shot Kakashi a wide-eyed look as he reset his stance.

Kakashi stopped moving, mind racing. He should probably apologize. That was what people did in these situations, right?

_You're so goddamn clueless._

"Sorry, about before. I… ah…"

How to explain it to a six-year-old?

"You... scared me," he settled on. Close enough.

Naruto turned to the Uchiha with a curious look, while the other kid pierced Kakashi with a gimlet stare. After a long moment, the Uchiha opened his mouth.

"Are you an ANBU?"

Kakashi met the kid's eyes with his lone grey one. "Yes."

"And you pulled us out of the fire?"

"Yes."

"Do you know my brother?"

Kakashi blinked slowly, giving himself time to think. The kid was an Uchiha, an Uchiha who thought Kakashi would know his brother. And given he'd brought it up just after finding out Kakashi was in ANBU…

"Uchiha Itachi? Yes."

"What's his codename?"

"Crow." Not bad, though, trying to confirm the information. Though the codename was probably not as secure as the kid thought.

The boy stared at him for another long minute before he nodded. "Okay."

"Okay? Are we good? Can we go back now?" Naruto blurted out, shifting back and forth on bare feet. He had to be freezing.

"Yeah, we can go." Kakashi stooped to pluck his kunai from the river, then crouched to erase the signs of his presence there.

"Hey, wait! What's your name?" Naruto bounced on his feet, a grin growing steadily across his face. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm gonna be the best ninja _ever!_"

Kakashi went numb, seeing bright red hair superimposed over the blond. He gave himself a mental shake. He didn't have time for that.

"I'm," Kakashi started. He paused momentarily, thinking. It wasn't as though he had his Hound mask anymore. "Kakashi. Hatake Kakashi."

"Cool!" Naruto chirped, obviously not noticing the pause. Kakashi turned to the Uchiha, the one whose name he didn't actually know.

The kid gazed up at him, then huffed and turned his head away. "Uchiha Sasuke," he muttered.

_Sasuke_. Kakashi committed the name to memory. He took a step back along the faint trail toward the cave. Naruto clung tight to his side, grinning with hands tucked behind his head. Sasuke, despite his seeming animosity, shuffled a few steps closer.

Kakashi worked up the energy for a tired smile. "Right. Let's get moving."

* * *

AN:

Sorry for the wait. Life's been kinda nuts.

A lot of Kakashi's behavior was inspired by the Kakashi ANBU anime arc. I'm a big fan, even though it's technically filler. (Although I don't recommend abandoning someone having a panic attack to their own devices.)

I'm not too crazy about the Naruto and Sasuke scene. Eh, maybe I've just read it too many times in the last hour. It was the one giving me the most trouble. Kakashi is so much easier to write than a six-year-old.

Also, sorry Sakura didn't really appear in this chapter. She was actually supposed to wake up before Naruto, but events conspired against me. Don't worry! I have plans for her.

Side Note: Tweaked the summary a bit.

Side Note 2: The first chapter has been edited for spelling, grammar, and word choice. (Somehow I managed to use the word "building" five times in the same paragraph. Embarassing…)


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